54°34′38″N5°55′51″W / 54.5773°N 5.9309°W / 54.5773; -5.9309The Lyric Theatre, or simply The Lyric, is the principal, full-time producing theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland.[1]
The theatre's current Executive Producer is Jimmy Fay,[2] previously the founder and Artistic Director of Bedrock Productions.[3][1]
Historyedit
The theatre was first established as The Lyric Players in 1951 at the home of its founders Mary O'Malley and her husband Pearse in Derryvolgie Avenue, off the Malone Road, and moved to its new site on Ridgeway Street in 1968, between the Stranmillis Road and Stranmillis Embankment. Austin Clarke laid the foundation stone in 1965 a deliberate choice by O'Malley to build a link back to her artistic hero W. B. Yeats.[4]
In 2004 the theatre announced a fundraising campaign to redevelop the theatre on its existing site. In June 2007 a £1m donation by Northern Irish businessman Dr Martin Naughton kickstarted the development. Naughton's donation was the largest in Northern Ireland arts history. He had previously made donations to Queen's University, where the Naughton Gallery is named in his honour.
New Lyric Theatreedit
The new theatre, designed by O'Donnell & Tuomey, opened on 1 May 2011, with a Gala Performance of The Crucible. The new facility features a new main theatre with a seating capacity of almost 400 and a multi-function performance space 'The Naughton Studio' which can seat between 120 and 170.[8] This new theatre was an almost threefold increase in the size of the previous building and the theatre remains the largest employer of actors and other theatre professionals in the region.[9]
The Lyric's current Chair is Sir Bruce Robinson[10] who took over in January 2015 from BBC Northern Ireland journalist Mark Carruthers,[11] who received an OBE at Buckingham Palace on 25 March 2011, in recognition of his leadership of the theatre at a highly critical time in its development.
Since the theatre re-opened a permanent exhibition of the work of Belfast-born visual artist Colin Davidson (artist) has been on display at the theatre where he personally presented his work to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the President of Ireland during the Royal visit to Northern Ireland on 27 June 2012. This was the occasion, and the Lyric was the chosen site, for a public meeting between Queen Elizabeth II and Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister for the Northern Ireland Assembly and a former commander of the IRA. The event is viewed by many as a positive sign for the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland.[12]
In October 2018, as part of the theatre's 50th anniversary on the Stranmillis site, that theme of being "a shared place, a crossroads between communities" was marked at a symposium and over a weekend of celebratory events with the Irish Times noting the Lyric was a cultural bridge in a divided city.[13]
Controversyedit
A Stormont investigation found that there were serious failing in the selection of a preferred bidder for the new Lyric Theatre building.[14] The report stated that the way in which the contract was awarded was significantly flawed and failed to adhere to principles of good practice.[15] Chairwoman of the Public Accounts Committee Michaela Boyle said: "The quality of the rebuilt Lyric Theatre is undisputed; we recognise that it is a highly impressive theatre and that it has deservedly won a number of prestigious awards. However, the end does not justify the means. My committee has found that there were significant departures from good practice."[16]
A year after Stormont's PAC reported, then finance minister Simon Hamilton suggested that if the committee had actually found evidence of fraud the people they should be speaking to are the PSNI, not the BBC and that the committee had "slurred organisations and individuals."[17]
^"History of The Lyric Theatre, Belfast". history.lyrictheatre.co.uk.
^"Dancing at Lughnasa review: A thoughtful, adept 25th-anniversary revival". The Irish Times.
^Maguire, Tom (2007). ""You're only putting it on": Dressing up, Identity and Subversion in Northern Irish Drama". Postcolonial Text. 3 (3). Archived from the original on 26 July 2011.
^"The Alternative – where does the power lie, who knows best, will anyone ask let alone listen? (Fishamble's A Play For Ireland at Lyric Theatre until Sunday 13 October)". Slugger O'Toole.
^Campbell, Brian (5 May 2016). "Writer Rosemary Jenkinson on Here Comes The Night, Aphrodite's Kiss and Van Morrison". The Irish News.
^ abRoy, David (2 June 2016). "Playwright Gary Mitchell returns to Lyric with Smiley". The Irish News.
^"Theatre review: Death of a Comedian". The Irish Times.
^"Me and my teacher: We look at mentors that inspired you". Belfasttelegraph – via BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.
^"We ask actor Matthew McElhinney about the special relationships in his life". Belfasttelegraph – via BelfastTelegraph.co.uk.
^"Can't Forget About You review – ribald romcom with Northern Irish tension". the Guardian. 9 July 2015.
^"Whatever became of Kenneth Branagh's Billy?". The Irish Times.
^"Morrison, Bill (William McKay) | Dictionary of Irish Biography". DIB.ie.
^ abc"Jennifer Johnston at 90" (PDF). DLRCoCO.ie. 2020.
^ abcdefHarte, Liam (2 January 2018). "Conversations on a collaboration: an interview with Martin Lynch". Irish Studies Review. 26 (1): 124–134. doi:10.1080/09670882.2017.1411238. S2CID 149364214 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
^"PROGRAMME: Northern Star, by Stewart Parker (1998)".
^ abRussell, Richard Rankin (2007). "Playing and Singing toward Devolution: Stewart Parker's Ethical Aesthetics in "Kingdom Come" and "Northern Star"". Irish University Review. 37 (2): 366–394. ISSN 0021-1427. JSTOR 25505047.
^ abcd"Galvin, Patrick | Dictionary of Irish Biography". DIB.ie.
^"Old Days". IrishPlayography.com]]. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
^O'Beirne, Patricia (28 August 2018). "Provoking performance: challenging the people, the state and the patriarchy in 1980s Irish Theatre" (pdf). NUI Galway. p. 89. hdl:10379/14942.
^"Victims". IrishPlayography.com]]. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
^Boyd, John; McIlroy, Brian (1987). "An Interview with Playwright John Boyd". Irish University Review. 17 (2): 242–250. JSTOR 25477684 – via JSTOR.
^"Drama in the Catacombs". DRB. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
^Walsh, Ian R (2014). "Theatricality In Verse: Donagh MacDonagh's 'Happy As Larry' and The Lyric Theatre". DQR Studies in Literature. 56: 107–119. ISSN 0921-2507. EBSCOhost 116539683.
External linksedit
Media related to Lyric Theatre, Belfast at Wikimedia Commons